Human powered sound

During the Momentum Magazine Bike Style fashion show in San Francisco a couple of weekends ago, sound for the show was powered by these three people pedaling their bikes on "The Biker Bar."

Paul Freedman's "Biker Bar" is a series of bikes mounted on rollers connected to a generator to provide 200 watts of clean AC power that can peak to over 500 watts.

Because of the 'spiky' nature of dance music, it turns out this is enough juice to run mains, monitor, and mixers for a respectable volume of sound. Paul and his Rock the Bike crew tows the "Biker Bar" around San Francisco on a bike trailer for music festivals and bike fashion shows. The "Biker Bar" is also available for sale either as a DIY kit or fully assembled.

Because festival participants use their own bikes on the biker bar, Rock The Bike calls this "the most democratic, grassroots way to power your event." People mount their own bikes to the biker bar to power the sound equipment.